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Jen is a thirty-year-old Canadian book blogger and bibliophile currently residing in the wilds of suburbia. Aside from a penchant for older men, particularly those with the surnames Firth, Elba and Norton, Jen is also passionately interested in running, Mad Men, and Marilyn Monroe. In addition to being a voracious reader and self-proclaimed television addict, Jen is also an aspiring children and youth services librarian who would like to pursue a MLIS and better help readers find the perfect book for them.

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Happy Monday, friends! Well, after an unexpected (and much-needed) two week break from posting, Pop! Goes The Reader is back and I can think of no more special way to mark my return than in helping to host the exclusive cover reveal for Anna Hecker’s exciting 2018 young adult debut, When The Beat Drops! Coming to a bookstore and library near you May 1st 2018 from Sky Pony Press, When The Beat Drops tells the story of seventeen-year-old Mira, a jazz prodigy who is introduced to the world of EDM (electronic dance music) in an effort to better understand her sister and in the process discovers a love for dance music, DJing, and a promoter whose promises might be too tempting to resist. Eric Smith, the multitalented author of The Greek’s Guide To Dating, Inked and Branded and Anna’s agent, has described When The Beat Drops as Pitch Perfect and Save the Last Dance meets This Song Will Save Your Life. Please read on to learn more about this creative and heartfelt contemporary story, including the exclusive cover reveal and a special note from the author about the novel’s origins and inspiration!

Hi! I’m Anna, and I’m so excited to be partnering with Pop! Goes The Reader to reveal the cover for my debut novel, When The Beat Drops. You’ll see it below, but…

First, a little about the book!

When The Beat Drops follows 17-year-old jazz prodigy Mira Alden as she reluctantly attends her first warehouse party, only to fall in love with electronic music, DJing…and Derek, a gorgeous older promoter who thinks he can make her a star. As her passion for jazz battles with her new world of packed dance floors and sun-soaked music festivals, she finds herself learning new lessons about music, friendship, family, and love.

But then something bad happens. Really bad. (I’m not going to spoil it here, but did I mention it’s bad?) Suddenly Mira’s golden summer is plunged into darkness, and she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her glittering new world.

And why I decided to write it…

I fell in love with house music in my teens, and that love never faded. I spent years chasing beats, and helped throw big crazy warehouse parties with multiple stages as well as an intimate monthly in an underground Brooklyn venue.

I always wanted to capture the feeling of being front and center on a packed dance floor, completely lost in the music and surrounded by the people who get you most in the world. When The Beat Drops is my love letter to that world.

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. People party too hard, don’t take care of their bodies, and make decisions they regret. I wanted to talk about that in a way that’s realistic without being preachy, and show it through the eyes of someone new to the scene. That’s how Mira’s story was born.

Readers, I am so, so in love with this cover! I had a vision of a photo that could capture how a party looks and feels from behind the DJ booth: the bright lights and dark shadows, and the non-stop movement and contagious energy of the crowd.

My amazing cover artist Kate Gartner nailed it with this picture, and kindly humored me as I sent her eight bazillion different festival flyers for font inspiration. I hope you love it as much as I do — and, even more than that, I hope you enjoy the book!

Thanks for reading!

About Anna Hecker

Anna Hecker writes young adult novels and advertising copy, and once ran the Twitter account for the M&M’S character Ms. Green. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son, and fluffy bundle of glamor Cat Benetar, and spends her free time devouring books and chasing beats.

Seventeen-year-old Mira has always danced to her own beat. A music prodigy in a family of athletes, she’d rather play trumpet than party – and with her audition to a prestigious jazz conservatory just around the corner (and her two best friends at music camp without her), she plans to spend the summer focused on jazz and nothing else.

She only goes to the warehouse party in a last-ditch effort to bond with her older sister. Instead, she falls in love with dance music, DJing…and Derek, a gorgeous promoter who thinks he can make her a star. Suddenly trumpet practice and old friendships are taking a backseat to the packed dance floors, sun-soaked music festivals, outsized personalities, and endless beats of the EDM scene.

But when a devastating tragedy plunges her golden summer into darkness, Mira discovers just how little she knows about her new boyfriend, her old friends, and even her own sister. Music is what brought them together…but will it also tear them apart?